Bechtel wins $242M contract modification for chemical weapons destruction

Reston-based Bechtel National has been awarded a $242.28 million contract modification from the U.S. Army to address past contract overruns associated with the Pueblo Chemical Agent-Destruction Pilot Plant in Colorado.

The plant is a chemical weapons destruction facility that destroyed the chemical weapons stockpile previously stored at the U.S. Army Pueblo Chemical Depot in Pueblo, Colorado. The Bechtel Pueblo Team, which includes Bechtel as well as Amentum and Battelle Memorial Institute, was awarded a contract in 2002 to design, build, test and operate the plant.

Bechtel led the team that destroyed the chemical weapons stockpile. The company reports that between March 2015 and June 2023, the team destroyed more than 780,000 munitions containing 2,613 U.S. tons of chemical agents.

In June 2022, Bechtel was awarded a $759 million contract modification to close the facility. Work was to be performed in Pueblo and was initially expected to be completed on March 30, 2026. The plant’s closure will involve decontamination, rendering equipment safe for removal and demolition and transferring government personal property for reuse, sale, recycling or disposal. It will also involve the demolition of facilities not required for future use and closing environmental permits, contracts and interagency agreements and archiving records.

The $242 million contract modification announced on Thursday says that Bechdel will perform work in Pueblo with an estimated completion date of April 3, 2026. The Army Contracting Command of Rock Island Arsenal, Illinois obligated the money from the Army’s fiscal 2015 research, development, test and evaluation funds.

Headquartered in Reston, Bechtel is a global engineering, construction and project management company. Engineering News-Record in 2024 ranked Bechtel as the nation’s third largest construction company. Since its founding in 1898, the company has completed more than 25,000 projects in 160 countries.